Everything in Life is Writable

"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt."
Sylvia Plath

I remember a story that an art history professor told in class that as an young man he went to Italy with a bunch of fellow art students, with back backs, and they hiked around the Italian countryside since the art professor was Italian-American and could speak Italian looking at all of the sights. They came across a shepherd with his flock of sheep and asked him what the shepherd thought about living around all of the beauty.

"Beauty? There is nothing here to see, " said the shepherd dumbfounded.

The art students looked equally dumbfounded as they looked up at the ancient Roman aquaduct above them and the ancient Roman ruins that his sheep were grazing in. The shepherd never saw what was around him.

This weekend, a friend and I took a day trip to a small town on the Korean coast. We got off the train (which by the way was extremely pleasant and I highly recommend the Korean trains) and got in a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a restaurant near the beach that was nice. He assured us that there was nothing to look at in that small coastal town but we went. This was a refrain that we were to hear over and over again.

The restaurant was located within walking distance from the beach and a long strand of trees and a walk that was in excellent condition. There were no people in the restaurant, but we were early. She said that we had time to take a walk and we did and she prepared us a meal although my friend and I turned around to see some poor chicken running for his life. As Buddhists, this was not what we bargained for and I have never been in this situation before. We turned to the beach and the chicken was in his next life. The meal was excellent. The beach was famous for his sand baths and I tried not to think about that poor chicken.

The tide was out and I could tell there were working fishermen in the area and the boats were sitting on the beach. There were campers and some very well maintained camping areas along with kids playing games.

We finished lunch and found out that the taxi driver was a Buddhist. We asked him whether or not there other places to go. No, he assured us there was nothing to see. He did take us to an amusement park and we walked across the street to see a large river that was flowing toward the sea. The park was nice but no one was there. We tried to find a taxi again but a nice family took us to a coffee house that they recommended that was one of the nicest coffee houses I have ever been to that had an astonishing view of the sea with boats on the mud and out in the water. I wanted a sketch pad. It was beautiful. We had some great coffee and some munchies and stayed for a while. Then we caught another taxi with the same refrain to the downtown area as there was nothing to see or do.

We walked down the downtown area lined with small shops, full of friendly people and wonderful things to look at. It was unlike Daejon or Seoul. There were no traffic lights as the town was so small but very nice. Then we went into a shop that was crammed full of pots, pans, cups, saucers, bowls and I bought a set of cups and saucers and the price was very low and they were bone china from Korea. We walked through a farmers' market of sorts full of fruits, vegetables and people. It was time to get back to the train station.

Then we noticed that the train station itself looked like one big yellow smiling chetshire cat. We each took pictures. It was quite an adventure. We turned some seats around on the train and my friend looked at where we were going and I looked at where we had been. There was plenty to see in the town where there was nothing to see. Everything in life is an adventure.